when they come
they will come
as hammers in the night
dark and crashing
through the door
to take it all away…

I attended a very good event this past Sunday afternoon and it got me thinking about the nature of evil (the event was not evil btw).

There was reference to the Epicurean philosophical discussion about the problem of evil and how it relates to God.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia describing the basic logic:

The originator of the logical problem of evil has been cited as the Greek philosopher Epicurus,^[11] and this argument may be schematized as follows:

1. If an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent god exists, then evil does not.
2. There is evil in the world.
3. Therefore, an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God does not exist.

This argument is of the form modus tollens, and is logically valid if its premises are true, the conclusion follows of necessity. To show that the first premise is plausible, subsequent versions tend to expand on it, such as this modern example:^[2]

1. God exists.
2. God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent.
3. An omnibenevolent being would want to prevent all evils.
4. An omniscient being knows every way in which evils can come into existence, and knows every way in which those evils could be prevented.
5. An omnipotent being has the power to prevent that evil from coming into existence.
6. A being who knows every way in which an evil can come into existence, who is able to prevent that evil from coming into existence, and who wants to do so, would prevent the existence of that evil.
7. If there exists an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God, then no evil exists.
8. Evil exists (logical contradiction).

While it flows reasonably well I cannot accept the argument right at the beginning because of a very basic question –

what is evil?

Oxford defines evil as:

Definition of evil in English:

adjective

1 Profoundly immoral and wicked: his evil deeds no man is so evil as to be beyond redemption

The problem with using evil to disprove the concept of God is that evil is dependent on, and from, human perspective while the concept of God is, by its nature, independent of human perspective.

Evil is only evil as it relates to humanity.

What is evil? It is that which harms people or that harm which people do.

It is evil for an adult to beat a child to death. It is evil for a person to steal the belongings of others. It is evil to imprison and starve a person or persons…you get the idea. We can agree on this.

We consider these things evil because these are things that harm us.

What about things that harm other beings however – are these things evil? Every morning when I shower I eradicate billions of small lives (microbes etc) from my body? Why is this not evil? Is it good because it benefits me? Is it not evil because these lives are not sentient? Is sentience the measure for evil?

How about when a lion kills a zebra? Is this evil? We don’t think so. This is nature? They do not know any better.

How about nature? The argument states that floods, tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes are manifestations of evil. But if lions killing zebras are not evil because they are acting according to nature why then are environmental disasters evil? They are simply mindless expressions of evil.

No – we consider natural disasters evil because of their effect on humanity.

Evil is dependent on human existence for its objective definition while God on the other hand is a concept that must be independent from human perception.

At this point some will say this cannot be because God is a human construct. Even if God were a human construct however the nature of God is that God would be apart from humanity.

According to the Epicurean argument God, unbound by all constraint, is somehow constrained by the existence of evil – a concept dependent solely on human existence.

The argument says that because people suffer God cannot exist. The argument is premised on an egocentric foundation and this is why I find it fails. To put it another way the argument requires God, an independent agent unencumbered by any constraint to be constrained by a concept the requires humanity for its existence.

What is evil? There is no absolute definition of evil based on a standard outside of human existence (think Plato’s cave metaphor for this one). There is no absolute definition of God either…there is only what we perceive.

Whether we like it or not, the existence of things that harm humanity is not a basis for disproving God. We may not like it but our limited perspectives cannot invalidate what, by its nature, would be limitless.

To put it another way – the fact that I eradicate billions of lives from my body every morning does not make me evil. It also does not mean I do not exist.

I know this is clunky – I will edit over time to smooth it out a bit and maybe make it elegant.

 

It is likely that within the next five to 10 years our neighbours to the south in the United States will enter into a second civil war.

I don’t think it will be a hot war (mass use of weapons in an organized and strategic fashion toward a goal of conquest/subjugation) but certainly a cold war (a passive-aggressive use of laws, sanctions, PR and rhetoric designed to control or manipulate governments and people).

In fact, if you have been watching things unfold over the past few years you might say the cold war has already begun as increased division becomes more and more apparent.

The sides:

You have an increasing gulf between liberal and conservative populations, governments and organizations/movements.

While there are increasingly extreme versions of both in every city and state the old divisions of the original civil war are still apparent. As one heads south toward and past the Mason-Dixon line you run into an increasingly conservative mindset (and while this has always been so there has been a live and let live attitude for some time now that seems to be evaporating.

In the north east you find increasingly liberal perspectives. As you had through the Midwest you find more conservative perspectives again until the west coast is arrived at where the liberal cultures strengthen once more.

The fault lines run across dimensions as well. Urbanites tend to be more liberal than rural types. Whites in the south and Midwest tend toward conservative perspectives. The divisions are influenced by education, culture, politics and religion too.

So while this is a very complex scenario the increasingly clear delineation between left and right (a brutal false dichotomy if ever there was one) stands starkly forth revealing a valley between the two with barely anyone in it.

How will it play out?

With the Democrats poised to win a third straight term (under Clinton or possibly Sanders) while the Republicans will almost certainly field Trump (but just about anyone they field would appear extreme in comparison to previous candidates) it is difficult to overstate the enormity of what this represents as an historic shift.

In Canada we are used to the pendulum swinging back and forth from left to right but generally not to an extreme of either. In the United States the pendulum has generally swung from right to not too right/centre. In the past decade or two however things have changed dramatically as both parties dig deeper and deeper into more extreme rhetoric and divisive tactics to solidify and grow their bases. Both camps are guilty of using fear to motivate the electorate.

Increasingly there will be more and more talk of state and individual rights over the central power of the federal government. There will be increasing numbers of court cases and laws being taken to the Supreme Court as conservatives seek to enshrine individual and state rights while liberals seek a broader implementation of federal programs.

Ultimately the right in the United States is better suited to a hot war with an appeal going back to the 2nd amendment – even within the ranks of the military establishment it is likely there will be greater sympathies to the right than the left.

What will keep the left in power is a stream of ultra-extreme candidates on the right combined with a relatively safe and secure homeland in terms of both defense and economy. Should any of these things falter it will be easier for the right to establish a stronger foothold toward the next election.

What about three Democratic terms?

Did you know there has only been one Democratic presidency across three terms (and into a fourth)?

Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president four times in a row from 1933 to 1945 (he died early into his fourth term). It was his presidency that led to the 22nd Amendment and the two term limit for presidents. Prior to Roosevelt it was an unwritten tradition that presidents typically did not run for more than two terms.

Since Roosevelt only one party has held office for more than two terms in a row – the Republican party – two terms under Reagan and one term under Bush Sr.

Before this you have to go all the way back to Herbert Hoover’s election in 1929 to find any party in power for more than two terms – in this case Hoover ended the Republican three term run started by Warren Harding in 1921, followed by Calvin Coolidge in 1923 followed by the aforementioned Hoover.

Prior to this there was also set of three terms and another of four terms for the Republican party – the Democrats have only ever had two straight terms other than Roosevelt, who, it could be said, was boosted in the polls by America’s involvement in World War 2.

What this means is a third term for Democrats as a party is unprecedented in American political history. It means we are watching an historic shift take place that many in the United States will resist strongly.

Further to this, unless the Republican party can field a charismatic, populist in the 2020 election it is likely the Democrats will move into a fourth straight term.

What does all this mean? We are in for some interesting and unpredictable times over the next four years in the United States and subsequently, the world.

 

Death is the single most inevitable and inescapable fact about human existence and it surprises and shocks us every single time it happens.

This one fate we cannot deny horrifies and crushes us each time we encounter it despite the absolute truth that each and every one of us will meet it.

I think this partly points to something inside of us that refuses to see it as part of the natural order of things. We see death as an interloper on creation…an unnatural reality and we rail against it with all of our might…as well we should.

Death is a thief.

It cannot be ignored however that for some – death is a relief. It is an open door to walk through and leave this room for whatever is on the other side.

Still, whatever the circumstances, there is no easing of the pain of absence that those left behind feel when a loved one dies.

That pain manifests in many different ways as each person’s mourning is as unique as a fingerprint.

Part of mourning is the sudden and ongoing awareness of a new emptiness inside and outside of us that was once occupied.

What do we do with this emptiness? This is the question that mourning seeks to answer. What do I fill this space with?

Initially many people fill the wound with a flood of emotions – anger, grief, hate, and fear are often at the forefront (and for those who have lost the very aged or those who have suffered for a long time relief is also part of the list).

There is no wrong way to grieve and there is no wrong way to feel after the death of a loved one. We need to know this so that we do not add guilt to the long list of feelings that swirl around us.

For those people who hold onto faith there is the small solace that while our loved ones have died they are, as a wise mentor of mine once said, in the hands of a loving God.

We may not understand how a God that allows death in its many horrible forms could be called loving, but that small reality in the world of faith can, if allowed, grow from a painful splinter into a great and comforting hope.

Still in the raw days after a death our thoughts of God may be non-existent or even such that our prayers are really angry and hate-filled screams – and this too is ok. It is no sin to hate and rail against God in the shadow of death and part of who God is accepts and understands this human response.

There are others who may not have faith in God as an aspect of their grief. To them I can only say that there are worse things in this universe than  obliteration and leave it there, however small comfort that may be.

Of all the things that can be said about death one of the most true for those enduring it is that no words, however well meant or wise or loving, bring healing or comfort.

No matter who you are and no matter how many deaths you have had to personally endure it is also true that you cannot remotely understand the pain of another who is going through the grief. Those who seek to come around and comfort the grieving must understand this.

In the face of death and the unspoken fear of non-existence, often the greatest comfort one can offer is that of simple, silent presence. To exist in the presence of the one who is grieving non-existence can be a powerful statement that while death continues, so too does life.

In closing I leave you with the words of the great pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, uttered just prior to his execution by the Nazis on April 9, 1945 to one of his fellow inmates –

“This is the end – for me the beginning of life.”

I feel as a ghost some days,
faded and fading into eventual transparency
like a sheer curtain hung too long in the sun
moving with the vagaries of the wind
from here to there and back again – without reason

yet there is evidence of me in the world;
there are footprints that show I was (t)here,
and waves moving forever through time

am I still (t)here?
or am I recreating a known place –
that anxiety and fear might put flesh again to my bones;
that love and lust might pump my hot blood again,
through veins that may not even be there?

where am I that I have become so lost even to myself?
I’m of, but not in…
a vapour that has long since left the ocean
but has not realized it yet…